York 1-2 Forest

30 July 2014

NFFC

Goals from Jamie Mackie and Simon Cox gave Nottingham Forest a 2-1 pre-season friendly win at York City tonight.

Reds boss Stuart Pearce handed starts to youngsters Dimitar Evtimov and Jorge Grant as well as trialists Amadou Haidara and Mikele Leigertwood while new signing Chris Burke also made the starting line-up.

Nigel Worthington’s side made the brighter start in front of their own fans and Jake Hyde could have put them in front with just four minutes on the clock but he fired wide of the target from just six yards out.

Both teams were feeling their way into the contest with the midfield area seeing the majority of the ball but the home team were seeing the better of the goalscoring opportunities.

Reds goalkeeper Evtimov had to get down low to his left-hand side to palm away a low effort from Michael Coulson before the Bulgarian had to produce an almost carbon-copy save to keep out Minsterman skipper Russell Penn’s powerful drive.

Shortly after Penn’s strike had been beaten away, Forest had a triple chance to take the lead. Mackie beat the offside trap but couldn’t find a way past Jason Mooney in the home goal before Burke and Jamie Paterson had efforts deflected wide.

Stuart Pearce made a triple change at half-time as Burke, Leigertwood and Jack Hunt were replaced by the trio of Greg Halford, Tyler Walker and Roger Riera.

Despite the first half being a typical pre-season friendly affair, the second period exploded into life with two goals in 30 seconds as the home side kicked things off by hitting the front.

Former Mansfield man Lindon Meikle collected the ball in the right-hand channel before firing a low cross into the box where Platt was on hand to fire home from just outside the six-yard area.

The Reds produced a quick-fire response to the Minstermen’s opener and levelled matters straight from the kick-off. Good interplay inside the York penalty area saw Mackie break free in front of goal and he calmly lifted the ball over Mooney and into the net.

Just five minutes later Forest were ahead after another excellent attacking move. Mackie and Cox linked up superbly inside the opposition penalty area and as the Irishman collected the ball in front of goal, he calmly turned Keith Lowe inside out before slotting home.

Walker had been a real livewire in front of goal and he had two chances to extend the advantage midway through the second half. The young striker fired a low shot narrowly wide after linking up with Grant before he inexplicably sent a shot of from three yards out after latching onto Mackie’s fizzing cross.

York had an excellent opportunity to grab an equaliser inside the last ten minutes. Forest were unable to defend a ball into their penalty area but Ryan Jarvis, who was running on to the cross at pace, could only direct his shot wide of Evtimov's far post.

That was to be the last action of the contest as Forest saw the final few minutes out to record a morale-boosting win.